


starburnt country

by yonderdarling



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode: s12e01-02 Spyfall, F/M, Short & Sweet, outside pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22444336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yonderdarling/pseuds/yonderdarling
Summary: Graham steps out to check out the stars of the Southern Hemisphere. The Doctor and O have a similar idea.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor & Graham O'Brien, Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 28
Kudos: 163





	starburnt country

**Author's Note:**

> Just dipping my toes back into fic-writing, and I love Graham. I love him. I also love the new Master but I love Graham. Thanks to Cathy for confirming my questions about verandahs in the UK.

The Doctor and O are arguing over something to do with coordinates, and Ryan has taken Yaz into the TARDIS to make her a cup of tea (the water in the TARDIS doesn’t taste quite right, but it tastes a heck of a lot better than the bore water O is using) and help her calm down after what she saw. He doesn’t want to interrupt. And so, he’ll take a few minutes for himself.

  
Australia. Australia. Aus-tra-lia. The Land Down Under, and all that. He’d always dreamed of coming here, with Grace of course. See the Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Red Centre. It was hard - you had the whole universe, and that was vast, but in his head, Australia was still on the other side of the world, unreachable, bigger than any country in Europe.

  
Grace had wanted to see Uluru, too. He vaguely wonders if they were anywhere near there; the dirt was red enough, but he knew of a friend’s aunt from Birmingham who thought you could do a day trip from Sydney to Uluru and be back in time for a late supper, and Australia was so big it seemed unlikely.

Anyway. Australia. As with nearly all places they’ve seen with the Doc, the stars are different here. In the yellow light from the porch (verandah, as the guards put it, very exotic) he takes out his little notebook (always carry a notebook, you learn that when you’re a bus driver) and beneath ‘Venusian Capitol, year 4453’ and ‘Coronation of Henry VIII’ he adds ‘Australian outback, 2020.’ Grace would be proud.

Notebook goes back in the breast pocket, and Graham steps off the verandah into the dust, and walks a little into the scrub, and he looks up. The stars are different here, even if it is 2020 and Earth; they’ve never been that bright in Sheffield. There’s a huge scattering of them across the top of the sky, pearly white, and he knows it’s the Milky Way but he’s never seen it like that. It’s purple and white and silver, and looks like some great silk flag made out of stars and diamonds has been spread over the sky. It’s incredible.

  
He’s quiet and still, and so he isn’t noticed when the screen door opens again with its rusty hinges squealing. First it’s the Doctor who steps out, through the door held by O, and then O himself. She sits on the edge of the porch - verandah - legs swinging over the dirt, illuminated in the yellow light. O steps down onto the earth, into the shadows, turns back to face the Doc.

“This place needs a bit of TLC,” Graham hears the Doctor say. “A bit of elbow grease. And actual grease. Especially on those hinges.”

“I’ve got bigger things to worry about, Doctor,” says O. “We both do.”

“Yes. Thanks for being so quick to reply, by the way. And quick on the uptake.”

The Doc reaches over and up, pats O on the forearm. She leaves her hand there, holding his wrist.

“I told you, years ago,” says O. “When we first met. I’d be there the second you needed me.”

“Humans. All you humans,” says the Doctor, and Graham chuckles to himself, turns to look back up at the stars. He’s heard this speech before. “You lot. Always so - what?”

“Nothing.”

“So willing to help. So capable. So - “

Silence. In the desert, the outback somewhere, he can hear an animal chittering and moving around in the scrub. Graham turns back, looks, and sees the Doc’s head, a bright yellow spot under the light, and O leaning down towards it. Oh. They’re snogging. Alright. Even as he watches, feeling a bit like a perve and a bit like a dad watching his daughter on a date, the Doctor stands and leans into O, kissing him properly. She stops, says something to him that Graham can’t quite catch.

“I don’t care about that, when it’s you,” says O, and moves in again.

Alright. So, he’s stuck out here, because the Doc might be nice, but she’s a very private alien-person and he sincerely doubts she wants Graham to see her having a snog with a secret agent who got kicked out of Mi6 for acting like Mulder from the X-Files. He can’t very well march up out of the darkness and squeeze by them without being noticed. Softly softly catchee monkey, he shuffles behind a handy tree and tries to refocus on the moon and stars above.

“Will you come inside with me?” O asks. “I um - everyone else is in your TARDIS.”

There’s more silence, and Graham’s got to assume, more kissing. Then, the Doctor says,

“Sorry. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

O sighs, and laughs. “Worth a shot. I just - you’re very special.”

“Yes. And so are you.”

He can hear footsteps, as someone heavy on their feet - so, O - comes back onto the verandah and opens the door. The hinges squeal. Graham peers around his tree, and grimaces, because they’re snogging again, half in and half out of the doorway, the Doctor all yellow light and O in the shadows.

“Let’s say goodnight, O. You need some sleep. Or failing that, we need to get back to work.”

“Don’t you? Need sleep?”

“Not as much as you. Come on. Back to it.”

“Back to it.”

The door closes, and Graham waits, something telling him not to move. He turns his head, just so, to see the Doctor leaning against the door. She touches her mouth, once, tosses her hair back and lets herself back into the cabin. The hinges squeal. Graham turns, and looks up at the stars. He’ll give her a few minutes.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Graham. Thanks for reading!


End file.
